I went to the city planning office today to support some folks at a hearing.
Related Development is planning to flatten one of the only playgrounds in the upper east side, and replace it with a high rise. The UES is one of the most densely packed areas of NYC.
Furthermore, they asked for a change in the rules that would allow any company who worked on an Urban Renewal project to renege on their agreement with the city. Because the urban renewal project has ended, Related properties now wants to level a park.
"A green beacon in a sea of highrises..." - ParkOdyssey
It sets a dangerous precedent, which would put over 500 Privately Owned Public Spaces, or POPS, in danger. It's a precedent that would allow people to declare urban renewal to be temporary, and would allow any company to undo any urban renewal they've been a part of.
(For reference, this was item 31 on today's schedule.)
Speaking before us was a group that we started to refer to as the Pod People.
They want to cram new yorkers into smaller apartments as part of the Adapt NYC plan. In the 80s, a hard limit of 400 square feet minimum was established for all new apartments in New York. AdaptNYC plans to remove that requirement.
One of the new "Microunit" or "pod" plans which was submitted to the city as part of AdaptNYC
They're couching it in language about being sustainable and ecologically friendly, when really this is the real estate equivalent of factory farming. They want the most money for the smallest space.
With the testimony I heard today, they want to be able to charge $2,000 a month for a 250 square foot apartment, where the bed folds down into the kitchen.
"They see us as animals," Said a young rabble-rouser from the South Bronx who didn't want me to use his name. "We're just numbers to them, we're not people. This isn't about affordable housing, this is rich assholes debating the minimum size of our holding pens."
This is part of Bloomberg's plan for the city:
“The growth rate for one and two person households greatly exceeds that of households with three or more people, and addressing that housing challenge requires us to think creatively and beyond our current regulations.”
So Bloomberg thinks that you should be legally allowed to cram two people into a room smaller than a college dormitory, and charge them $2,000 for the privilege. This would let them define my current cupboard-under-the-stairs size studio as a "luxury" apartment for which they'll charge $3-5K a month. These rooms are smaller than the average hotel room, and fitting any amenities at all into these spaces makes it look like the architect was an expert at tetris.
Some of the presentation models are done up with all the bells and whistles too. One design calls for a balcony for every apartment so that, in a fit of despair, you can hurl yourself to your death and make room for other tenants.
And they're pretending that this is somehow an attempt to make housing affordable.
I also found out something else recently about the city's "Affordable" housing.
They use "Average Mean Income" to define low-income. By the city's definition, anyone making less than 80% of AMI is considered "low income."
By the city's definition, 80% of AMI is about $82,000 a year. This means that almost half of new affordable housing, built with city and state money, is targeted to individuals and families making between $60K-$80K a year. Only about 30% of new affordable housing is being built for people who make less than $60,000.
They're using city, state, and federal money for affordable housing to build luxury apartments for the upper-middle class.
Finally, there was the demolition of Five Pointz.
Five Pointz is probably the largest collection of street art an graffiti on the planet. It's a cultural landmark. To rich white assholes, it's an eyesore, and so it has to go.
They want to level it and replace it with a high rise.
We won't know the City Planning Commission's decision on any of these issues for two weeks. There is hope that they'll make the right decisions.
Today's experience completely exhausted me. There is so much evil being done in the dark.
And through it all I found myself asking: where is our media? Why aren't we seeing reporting about these events?
There were two reporters there today: a woman from NY1, and a nice young man from the Staten Island Advance.
They were both there doing fluff pieces on a new Ferris wheel.